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Public Records Requests

Oregon Judicial Department Office of the State Court Administrator Public Records Requests

Routine Requests

The Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) provides access to court records maintained in the Oregon eCourt Information system without charge, through public access terminals in each circuit court. In addition, routine requests to inspect court case files may be made at the court clerk’s counter in each state court.

Written Requests

A written request to inspect or copy court records must be submitted to the appropriate court or administrative office having custody of the record. Requests may be submitted in person, by mail or via the below specified email addresses.
 
  • For circuit court records (such as divorce, custody, or individual case records) in each of Oregon’s 36 counties, the Trial Court Administrator of the specific circuit court is the records custodian. Requests may be submitted in person, by mail, online, or as otherwise specified by each circuit court.   Online requests may be submitted via the Records Request Form or by visiting the circuit court’s website. Visit our Self-Help Center​ for more resources.

  • For Supreme Court and Court of Appeals records, you must send your request to the Appellate Court Records Section. The request may be submitted online via the Records Request Form or may be submitted in person or by regular mail to:

    Records Administrator
    Appellate Court Records Section
    Supreme Court Building
    1163 State Street
    Salem, OR 97301-2563

  • For Tax Court records, you must send your request to the Tax Court. The request may be submitted online via the Records Request Form or by regular mail to:

    Records Administrator
    Oregon Tax Court
    Supreme Court Building
    1163 State Street
    Salem, OR 97301-2563

  • For records in the custody of the Office of the State Court Administrator (such as statewide data requests, or other administrative records), you must submit your request to that office. The request may be submitted online via the Public Records Center​​ or by regular mail to:

    Sam Dupree, Public Records Administrator
    Office of the State Court Administrator
    Supreme Court Building
    1163 State Street
    Salem, OR 97301-2563

When we receive your request, the local public records administrator will determine whether the Judicial Department is the custodian of the requested record. This may require that we contact other divisions, units, or personnel in the Judicial Department or in other government offices. We will notify you whether we have all, some, or none of the requested documents.

  • State law requires us to make available for inspection or to copy only those records that exist at the time of the request. If you want to inspect or obtain copies of records on a continuing basis, we may require you to make a new request for records created after the earlier request.
  • State law does not require us to create new public records to respond to a request.
  • State law does not require us to create new information using our computer programs or to create a new program to extract data in our computers in a manner you request.
  • State law does not require us to develop or acquire new or additional software or programs to retrieve information you request.
  • State law gives priority to our regular duties. It does not require us to provide records by a deadline you set. We process requests in the order we receive them. We try to respond promptly, but state law does not require us to interrupt our regular duties to respond to records requests. Staffing shortages and other circumstances or research requirements may delay a response. We will notify you that we have received your request and give you an estimated time if fulfilling your request will take longer than 20 business days.
  • State and federal law require or allow us to keep some information and records confidential.
  • State law allows us to take reasonable measures to protect our records. It also restricts who may remove court files from the office of the clerk or court administrator. We therefore require that we supervise inspection of our records for requestors who want to inspect records rather than have us copy them first. We charge for staff time to supervise inspection. For some types of records (e.g., digital recordings of court proceedings or documents with some information that is exempt from disclosure), we will make a copy available for inspection as needed to protect the original and to protect confidential information.

We will give you an estimate of costs if they will likely be more than $25.00. We will not proceed further with the request until you confirm in writing that you want us to proceed and until you send payment in advance and the payment clears. We will refund any excess over actual costs. If we underestimated our costs, we will inform you as soon as possible so you can determine whether you want us to continue working to respond to your request.

State law allows us to charge fees to recover our actual costs for locating and providing public records. For photocopies that we make of letter-size or legal-size pages, including normal and reasonable staff time to locate, separate, photocopy, and return documents to files and to prepare copies for mailing, we charge:

  • $0.25 per page (a double-sided copy is two pages)

Normal and reasonable staff time is 10 minutes or less per request.

We may charge additional amounts for staff time and other actual costs when responding to requests that require additional services or more than the normal and reasonable time for routine requests, including:

  • Time we spend to locate, compile, and sort requested records, even if we find no records that respond to your request or the records we do find are exempt from disclosure
  • Time we spend to review requested records and redact any exempt material
  • Time we spend to copy requested records
  • Time we spend returning documents to files
  • Time we spend to supervise inspection by the requestor
  • Necessary research time
  • Time we spend preparing correspondence related to your request
  • Special copy services and mailing services for documents that are not of standard size or for voluminous requests

State law permits us to charge for certifying that a copy of a document is a true copy. If you request a certified copy, we charge $5 per certificate in addition to the $0.25 per page. For more information, see CJO 13-065 and CJO 14-067

We will give you an estimate of costs if they will likely be more than $25.00. We will not proceed further with the request until you confirm in writing that you want us to proceed and until you send payment in advance and the payment clears. We will refund any excess over actual costs. If we underestimated our costs, we will inform you as soon as possible so you can determine whether you want us to continue working to respond to your request.

  • Oregon’s taxpayers bear the cost to provide records for free or reduced cost. We will consider waiving some or all of the cost to respond to a public records request only if you demonstrate that disclosure of the records is in the public’s interest because it affects the community or society as a whole and helps us meet our responsibilities to them. A concern or interest of a private individual or entity does not merit a fee waiver.
  • We generally do not waive fees for requests made by for-profit business entities except when necessary to enlist the public’s assistance in public safety or personal safety issues.
  • Requests for fee waivers must be in writing.